90's Kids are living a classic underdog storyline. Off the back their first co-headline sponsored tour, a sold-out hometown show and charting on national radio at the end of 2019, you might think that their success happened overnight. The truth is far from it, this fresh-faced indie-pop outfit has been slowing plying their ever-expanding international audience with nothing but hits since 2017, and finally, the world is starting to notice in a big way.
It may surprise some that they're not from a huge musical capital of the U.S. either, rather Ohio. "Ohio has such an underrated music scene. It's not an LA or a Nashville, but there are tons of good artists here who work really, really hard and I think that's certainly influenced us. There's definitely less visibility to the mass market here in Ohio, but that really has become a motivator for us to work harder."
Simplifying it to "the sound of our music really ties into our name," nostalgia is a clear motivator for the band's entire ethos, going on to state that "it's influenced by current pop styles, but there's always going to be nostalgic themes that take you back to a place, a time, or a memory." They indeed take us back in time on their anthem for the misfits, "High School", now sharing the coinciding down-to-earth visual.
Fusing a top 40 appeal with their one-of-a-kind indie-pop cocktail, the adolescent anthemia is irrefutable and sure to get your head nodding in mere seconds. We all know that the high school theme can be easily mishandled with cringe-worthy clichés, but 90's Kids execute their vision with an inimitable finesse. Speaking to it, they explain that "people get so consumed with being popular, being a football star, whatever it might be. When you step outside those hallways, none of it matters. This song is really for everybody who struggled to find their place in high school but ended up in a better place in life because of it"; something that no doubt resonates with a lot of us.
The video plays out like a mix between Jimmy Eat World's classic "The Middle" and Superbad, where they "play off of a number of high school cliches. It's set at a party where we walk through these various scenes and poke fun at everything that's going on. You have jocks messing with a nerd, you have a couple goth/emo kids, you have the prom king – it's all meant to feel like a larger-than-life portrayal of all the dumb cliches that are present in high school."
One thing among many that stands out for them, is that they don't look like your typical glossy pop band and more like your friends that decided to form a punk rock band. This is far from a criticism, however, as it comes across in the same amicable way, shirking some of that aforementioned gloss, and creating something much more relatable, more real. This concept extends to the musical chemistry and overall synergy of the band too, explaining that "We're a really tight-knit group," referring to the songwriting process as "kind of all hands on deck – it's not like Matt just writes the keyboards because he's the keyboard player, or Jordan just writes the drums because he's the drummer. Everyone in this band is so involved with every piece of every song that we write, and the end result is so energizing because all of us are excited about the final product of every song."
Expect big things for 90's Kids this year, "2020 has already been so productive and energizing for us," they state. "Coming off a huge year with some big milestones in 2019, we've been really focused on writing tons of new music and gearing up to hit the road in the Spring."
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